Behind Every Great Man There Is A Great Dog
by LolaCherryColaGirl
Summary: As the only female dog in the group, this story follows Cross' journey from when she's first attacked by Akakabuto up to the point where the dogs strike back against the monster bear.


**Disclaimer: **I own nothing.

**Behind Every Great Man There Is A Great Dog**

_Prologue _

Cross felt the ground shift underneath her paws as she rushed forward. She was vaguely aware of her fellow hunting dogs and her owner following behind her, but she had caught the scent of a rabbit and her entire being concentrated on following its tracks. It didn't matter if they couldn't keep up, she could easily kill it by herself.

After she'd gotten a fair bit ahead, Cross suddenly heard a roar that chilled her to her bones followed by screams from her owner and yelps of pain from the other dogs. Immediately she turned around to see the largest bear she had ever encountered towering over them. He had blood red fur down his back and was missing one eye. It was the trademarks of the feared Akakabuto that had terrorized Ou for a long time.

Taking a moment to consider her position Cross made use of her excellent jumping skills to set off from the ground and sink her teeth in near Akakabuto's remaining eye, hoping to blind him and give her an advantage in the fight. Inspired by her courage the other dogs followed her lead and Cross held on for as long as she could to let them know they stood a chance. Soon her owner would retrieve his riffle and save them.

Before that happened Akakabuto finally managed to shake Cross off and her hard crash to the ground knocked the breath out of her for so long that the bear had time to sink his claws deep into her back. Blood sprung from the wound and Cross struggled to get back up.

One of her friends was hanging on Akakabuto's back, trying to claw his way through the thick fur, but without hesitation Akakabuto took a step back, crushing the dog against a tree.

Cross realized he was smart and for the first time she was scared. It went away quickly though when Akakabuto singled out her owner and moved towards him, raising his gigantic paw to prepare for an attack.

Facing him head-on Cross didn't let him see her fear as she ran towards him and again went straight for his eye. Akakabuto had caught on though, and shook her off before she could really bite on, leaving her vulnerable. The monster bear began killing off her friends as easily as if they were flies and Cross' wound was bleeding so badly she couldn't come to their defense.

Luckily, she thought, her owner had exploited her diversion to get back up and would be able to help them. Instead when she turned her head she saw him running off like a coward, without looking back.

The feeling of betrayal combined with her loss of blood made Cross pass out, which probably saved her life as Akakabuto thought all the dogs were dead and wandered back to the mountains he commanded.

As soon as Cross regained consciousness she stumbled towards a nearby lake. Her wound had stopped bleeding and lapping up the cool water did wonders for her physical being. But no matter how much she drank she couldn't drown out the taste of bitterness or quench her desire for revenge. Despite leaving her pups behind, Cross knew she would never return to her owner. She wouldn't be able to look at him without remembering his cowardice and indifference to her friends who were now rotting carcasses left behind in the clearing.

She had heard of a pack of dogs, growing bigger each day, which were preparing to take down Akakabuto and had already decided within her that she would find them and join the pack. She would commit her life to bring down the monster.

Fueled by her rage, and blinded by it, it didn't occur to Cross that the pack might not want an injured bitch that was still lactating from carrying a litter and because of giving birth to her puppies hadn't even been hunting much for a few months.

When she reached the city before the mountain pass in Ou, a little girl took pity on Cross, whose fur looked ragged and dirty because of the blood that had seeped through it, and brought her to a veterinary. At first he didn't wish to treat her because he thought she was just a dog picked up from the streets, but when he saw her collar he dressed her wound and gave her food and water. Cross took advantage of it to fill her stomach, before she silently slipped through the door as soon as he left it open.

After that her travels got easier. She could use her body better now that the medicine and gaze had helped and tracking down the pack wasn't as difficult as she had thought it would be. She was trained to hunt and that many dogs left many scents to follow.

Hours later she hadn't caught up to them yet and she was getting hungry. The handful of dried food she had gotten from the veterinary wasn't enough, so when she saw a brood of pheasants flying low through the trees she was pleased at the timing.

Cross scratched the dirt under her paws and shifted to stand just right before leaping off the ground and bringing down three of the pheasants in one try.

"Wow."

A black and white French Spaniel stepped out from a nearby bush, looking wide eyed at Cross' prey.

She growled and bit tighter around the necks of the pheasants to show him he would have to fight if he wanted her food.

"Don't get your tail in a twist, I'm not going to hurt you. That was some jump." The Spaniel slightly bowed his head in respect.

Cautiously Cross dropped the pheasants, but put a paw on them just in case "If you don't want to hurt me what do you want?"

"Catch me a few of those? I'm platoon leader Smith and my group needs dinner."

Cross guessed that she had found the pack "You can have all three if you take me to your leader."

Smith lifted a paw in the general direction of all the white gaze wrapped around Cross' torso "Do you really think you're going to be of any use to us like that?" he flashed his teeth in a grin, not a threat.

"Akakabuto did this to me." Cross didn't need to say anything else. However much this dog already annoyed her, she recognized the hatred and vengeance in his eyes. Smith took off in an eastern direction without saying anything else so Cross grabbed her prey and followed him. She suspected he didn't know yet that she was female and the longer she could keep that a secret, the better.

When they reached the pack Cross was taken aback at how many dogs had already joined. She was the object of everyone's attention and she did her best to hold her head high.

"Smith!" a dog called out from one group "Why did you let a newbie catch that many pheasants?"

"I didn't 'let' him." Smith looked annoyed.

A third dog butted in "Ah, so he just beat you to it?"

"… Okay, you got me, I let him." Smith said with a straight face, but cowered when Cross glared at him.

More dogs were coming in from all directions to join them and Smith explained his deal with Cross "As soon as I've taken him to see the Leader, we'll eat."

A strong looking Mastiff wearing a red collar snorted through his snout "He?"

Cross, who had been holding her own so far, immediately looked away and knew how guilty that made her look.

"Yes Ben, he." Smith said before casting a glance at Cross and looking confused "Wait a minute … you're a bitch?"

"It shouldn't matter!" Cross barked.

"It does though," the Mastiff, Ben, said "you're the weak link."

Flashing her teeth at him in a snarl Cross rested on her hind legs, ready to either use both her paws to attack or perform a jump if he was quick enough to avoid her attack.

The dogs that had circled around them all shifted their looks back and forth while Ben calmly turned his back to her "I'll take you to the Leader."

She would rather have fought him than this, ignoring her offence like that served to humiliate her as she now followed in tow behind him.

The Leader rested in a nearby cave that offered him some privacy from his pack. Just before they reached it, Cross stretched her neck to try and get a hold of the end of the gaze so she could untangle it before meeting the Leader. It was always an inch out of reach and she was about to give up when Ben tugged at the end of the string so it unraveled and fell to the ground. When he saw her injury he looked like he was about to say something, but thought better of it.

Cross couldn't wait to be rid of him, his aloof behavior was worse than Smith's childish one.

"Leader, this dog wishes to join your pack." Ben had bowed his head when he spoke. Cross did the same to be respectful.

"A bitch?"

"Smith found her." Ben explained, and apparently it was all the explanation the Leader needed.

"We only accept males." He told Cross who raised her eyes to meet his glance.

"So I've gathered. But you shouldn't judge me on that, but by my motivation to join. I wish to kill Akakabuto."

The Leader looked almost bored "That is a noble wish, but-"

"I left my puppies to do this." Cross interrupted, her anger getting the best of her. She thought for sure she had ruined her chances to join now.

But the Leader got a far-off look in his eyes "You have pups?"

Cross nodded "I was used to breed, but I've left them because I want to avenge my friends who were killed by Akakabuto."

A moment's pause that seemed to go on forever passed between them before "Ben, she'll be in your platoon. You'll share the pheasants, food is scarce tonight."

While she was not thrilled by the thought of being Ben's subordinate, Cross was ecstatic that something she had said had managed to persuade the Leader. On their way back to the other dogs, Ben filled her in on different rules of the pack.

"A bitch?" a Doberman suddenly appeared before them, jumping down from higher cliff shelf "Are we letting just anyone in now?" he growled.

"This is our general, Sniper," Ben said indifferently "General, this is … What is your name?"

"Cross." She introduced herself.

"You won't last a week." Sniper predicted before disappearing back into the shadows.

Ben and Cross didn't talk anymore when they continued walking.

The chatter about Cross joining the pack quickly travelled from dog to dog, each and every one of them having an opinion about it. It certainly softened up a lot of them that she had brought food, though, and they saw an advantage to keeping her around.

Later in the night Cross excused herself to find some privacy and she headed in between some bushes. Heat rose to her face when she bumped into Ben who had been relieving himself deeper in the forest and was now headed back "You're still lactating?" he immediately noticed.

Out of pure shame, Cross couldn't answer him. The warm milk was running down her legs and it saddened her not to see her pups fighting each other to get to the milk first.

"I told you you're the weakest link," Ben mentioned while scraping moss together that could soak up the milk "our enemies will know that a real male will always protect a female. It puts you at more risk than the rest of us."

With that he walked off, leaving Cross to look dumbfounded after him, wondering if he had been 'protecting' her already by discouraging her to join.


End file.
